/lit/ - Literature

I like the meme where commies read advanced economics and ancaps red basic economics
it perfectly illustrates communist sophistry

What's the go with Thomas Sowell, is he any good or is he a meme?

My ex-gf has been posting a lot of quotes and vids about him on her social media lately, but she's a potato though. I assume she's just going down another meme path to cope with the fact that she's single and childless into her 30's and failed to find Mr Right after dumping me in college and now she's hit the wall she's trying to increase her value in the dating game with educated conversational topics. I don't want to waste my time reading any of his shit if he's a meme, I just figured he was because my potato ex started posting him

>>15820679
he's just milton friedman-lite except he's black and isn't left-wing so this makes him brave

>>15820679
Sowell is probably fucking the shit out of your exgf right now

>>15820704
Based

>>15820704
I hope so. It would ruin her awful parents, they hate blacks

>>15820713
they sound based

>>15820835
The mother hates the thought of her daughter with a black guy now, but she had told me she had had sex with black guys before she met her now husband, and her husband can't stand the thought of it. I'm not making this up. Honestly, Sowell pounding their daughter wouldn't be the weirdest thing about this family.

All I wanted to know was whether Sowell was a meme or not

>>15820679
He's intelligent and scholarly but straight forward. Perhaps because he's not a pure "philosopher." His views are more observational, based on empirical tendencies in terms of social mobility, and the paradoxical and counterproductive nature of Marxist ideas and many socialist or government policies.
Sowell should not be confused as very prescriptive, as many Libertarians are. Just based on my reading of him, he strikes me as socially conservative in a way most libertarians aren't. He tends to grasp how conserving traditional social institutions support social mobility and a sound society. Maybe I'm wrong on that, but it's an impression.

What many leftists don't like about Sowell, in my opinion, is that he's not theatrical. Now Sowell isn't a formal libertarian or formal anything really, but many libertarians are theatrical just like Marxists. Just look at the farce of their American party, like that jackass who stripped in one of their meetings (a leader, no less). They also have a farcically theatrical view of the world. "If we just legalize and deregulate everything," thinks the theatrical libertarian, "a free utopia will rise and we must accept all the new oddities it provides!" See Murray Rothbard, the type that loves proposing radical social changes.
They see things as binary as the Marxist, and in a material dialectic like the Marxist. And most of their main guys just accept popular social beliefs. "Well what [group] does is none of the government's business," and they'll take a noncommittal but firm opinion. Not particularly deep thinkers.
But Sowell doesn't broach these things as much because they're not in his scholarly region, which is respectable. It's more of his professionalism and areas of interest. And his view of the world is grounded in continuity, rather than mere binaries.

>>15820628
>How can one (1) man be so incredibly right and based?
Empiricism.

>>15820923
Thanks anon

>>15820679
Wow you also sound bitter as fuck, seems you have alot in common with the gal. Explains why in the past you two ended ended up together.

>>15820628
He's a nigger but a based nigger

>>15820679
He's just a hyper-neoliberal.

>>15820923
>scholarly
He works for a conservative think tank, that's not a "value judgement" just a fact... try to go and find some reviews of his recent work in actual "scholarly journals".

>>15821001
Well on empirical grounds he'd have to betray his mentor so he can't accept empiricism as a standard (go look at the growth of the broad money supply and inflation rate over the past 20 years).

>>15820679
>basic
>not even advanced
he makes leftists seethe by debunking all their childish nonsense in clear, straight forward language. they have no choice but to boo and hiss and try to act like they're above it all. imagine identifying as an intellectual and being so perpetually butthurt by an entry level work from a magic negro you have to resort to irony as a coping mechanism. KEK

>>15822395
Ironically it's easier to justify socialism on marginalist grounds.

>Ayo, dem taxes are bad and shit
>*market crashes*
Truly what a great mind...how i can get this smort...

Read Adam Smith you moron

>>15820679
No one actually read this book, it just has a simple title and affirms the most basic views of the reddit circlejerk that overtook this website. It has been debunked countless of times and following it has caused dozens of recessions. It's moronic but other books have hard titles like "Wealth of nations" so they're not as memable for twitter and reddit aka modern gathering places of conservatives.

>>15820679
He's a good entry into econ. But he was trained by jews, and shills for them. I've read several of his books, and does shit like blame nigger behavior on the Irish, and credit all wealth and happiness in the world to jewish middlemen. He's he's the ultimate good goy.

>Black conservative
Why? What brain damage leads a Black person to completely work against their own economic and social interests? Sowell is a fucking coon.

>>15820628
what are his contributions to economics?

>>15822343
He has a PhD in economics.
>He works for a conservative think tank
You mean the the one located at Stanford University? Let's look at the definition of scholar:
>a person who has done advanced study in a special field
Woah. I've been had.
But no, scholar means you're part of a protected institution of American trogladytes that contribute discord and retardation to the public.

>>15820628
He ascended the limitations of being human.

>>15822241
Um, sweety ? I just spent three hours combing through all your 4chan comments from the past two years, and oof, that's a yikes from me. I literally can't even right now. Oh sweet summer child, you do realize you are making me lose all faith in humanity ? I'm literally shaking rn. Let's unpack this. It's almost as if maybe, just maybe, your toxic problematic behavior towards PoC is because someone hurt you. Just shut up and listen. It's called being a decent human being. And as a white person, YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO LIFE.
Let that sink in.

>>15823316
>completely work against their own economic and social interests?
>against their interests
Black communities have been run by liberals and Democrats for decades, and you're telling me that their interests have been upheld?
Anyone who parrots this "against their interest" phrase is clearly a gullible retard. That's such an obvious psychological ploy.

>>15823696
>He has a PhD in economics.
So? You'll find most people working for think tanks funded by oil interests arguing against anthropogenic climate change have PhD's too.
The Hoover Institute isn't exactly an impartial academic institute... I mean you can look at the luminaries its produced over the years such as Antony Sutton.
I'm not saying "real" academia is much better but you've got to keep up with and engage with intellectual developments and people trying to refute your work. Sowell doesn't have to engage with any criticism of monetarism.

>>15823294
>debunked countless of times and following it has caused dozens of recessions
from who?

>>15823371
His biggest contribution would probably be Knowledge and Decisions, which Hayek called “wholly original” and “the best book on general economics in years.” https://reason.com/1981/12/01/the-best-book-on-general-econo/
It also won him some economic prize in 1980.

He’s also won a national humanities medal, likely for his book Conflict of Visions.

>>15822343
>He works for a conservative think tank, that's not a "value judgement" just a fact... try to go and find some reviews of his recent work in actual "scholarly journals".

>>15823316
>Why? What brain damage leads a Black person to completely work against their own economic and social interests? Sowell is a fucking coon.
Kill yourself imbecile.

>The Hoover Institute isn't exactly an impartial academic institute
Imagine thinking anything is impartial nor that it is something to strive for.

>but you've got to keep up with and engage with intellectual developments and people trying to refute your work
This is entirely false.

>Sowell doesn't have to engage with any criticism of monetarism.
He has and he constantly addresses these people. Hell, he wrote a whole book on why Marxism and Marxists should just kill themselves.

>>15824141
Holy based

>>15820890
He's not a meme
Death to all coal burners.

>>15823898
im not sure what academic ivory tower you're considering where residents have to meaningfully engage with any serious challenge to their ideas, this seems like cope for being called out on isolated demands for rigor

>>15824067
I'm not who you're responding to but the biggest issue is he holds to an exogenous view of money and believes financial institutes are basically just intermediaries not endogenously driving everything... that's not to mention all the pure theory on price setting can be empirically contested e.g. see
Means, G. C. 1972. "The Administered Price Thesis Reconfirmed"
Stigler, G. J. and J. K. Kindahl. 1970. "The Behavior of Industrial Prices"

>>15824141
That's basically the stupidest argument possible. Why is there so few conservative critical gender theorists or whatnot? Does Sowell want to be considered a "sociologist"? You'll notice a lot on the right out right attack the major premises of sociology as a field, the more extreme would even deny anything like "society" exists to be studied since they subscribe to some form of methodological individualism. Notice academic economics is the most fucking conservative academic field possible, the more credibility you grant sociology the more grounds it could gain on a field like economics and undermine certain overlapping claims to special knowledge.

>>15824168
>He has and he constantly addresses these people. Hell, he wrote a whole book on why Marxism and Marxists should just kill themselves.
Has he? I'm more referring to developments undermining monetarism as a viable research program over the past 12+ years. Cite one paper he has written dealing with the Japanese government bond market over the past decade? Any opinion piece on Karl Marx isn't that relevant.

>>15822450
how so?

>>15824374
Well it gives a rationale for heavy progressive taxation and since in pure theory it shouldn't matter if labour hires capital or capital hires labour creating a legal regime that flips the relationship shouldn't have any sort of "efficiency" problems... really it becomes very embarrassing trying to explain why capital hires labour everywhere without resort to "extra-economic" reasons. Ask a big brained economist why Ford rents workers time instead of workers renting Fords capital.

>>15820679
He's just a prefigurer of shallow morons like Ben Shapiro, nothing deep about him or any of his followers

>>15824441
what is the source of the capital that labour is hiring in this theory?

>>15820628
This guy is a gem. If he was the first black president then America would be in a way better place

>>15820628
Left Wingers are mad in this thread because they can't prove him wrong

>>15822089
Not at all. I get a good laugh out of it

>>15825146
What's the source of labour? That's not the question since they're only interested in the most efficient allocation of theoretically taken as given resources. Land and capital exist and are owned by someone, don't ask anymore questions.

>>15823294
I've read two of his books including this one. Maybe try reading something and having a valid opinion instead of shitting on a book you have only ever encountered on 4chan.

>>15824538
Yikes

>>15822395
I feel like he and Orwell would get along.

>>15822395

>>15824338
>Administered price thesis
Do economists like exist in a separate little bubble of their own?
Maybe Taleb was right all along and they really are retarded charlatans

>>15820679
His red-pills are off the chart. read an excerpt yourself. In his book "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" Sowell points out how slavery was present in every continent, but only white people ended it.

Ta-Nehisi Coates for right-wing GDP worshipers.

>>15825496
I've read all of his work including this one. Maybe try reading something and having a valid opinion instead of jerking off to a book you have only ever encountered on 4chan.

>>15824338
>Why is there so few conservative critical gender theorists or whatnot?
Because critical gender theory, feminist colonial studies and such are not relevant in the real world and is of no value to anyone.

>>15824338
>Has he?
Yes.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2013/10/return-keynes-thomas-sowell/

Sowell is anti-Keynesianism.

>>15823750
really gets the noggin joggin

>>15826729
not a big Sowell fan but don't insult him like that jesus

>>15826729
rekt

>>15827356
That's an opinion piece in a magazine. It kind of works against your point since post-Keyensian economists don't believe in the Phillips Curve, Sowell seems to be raging against textbook economists from the 1960s.
In the 19th century the American economy was still mostly agrarian, unemployment manifested itself differently from in the 20th and some of the downturns were basically just as bad as the great depression if not worse in some ways. Also he's doing the thing of praising the 1920s while ignoring the international chaos which was unfolding from American macro policy of building up unsustainable surpluses by blocking gold outflows and making it impossible for foreign debtors to export.

>>15820644
i like the meme where capitalist reads basic economics and communist reads advanced economics upside down

>>15824168
>why Marxism and Marxists should just kill themselves.
Which one?

Is the labor inflation index calculated using a keynesian methodology?